So you like massive layoffs because American companies are not able to get overseas contracts?
My mistake - I didn’t realize you were just stating the obvious.
I should have; if only I’d known then what I know now.
How protectionist would be enough for you? Close the borders of the US to all foreign trade?
Demanding that US government dollars be spent on US products is not the same as taxing imports to make them more expensive.
I am a free trade person, but it we are going to piss away taxpayer dollars and run up the debt on my kids - then can we at least try to stimulate the AMERICAN economy?
Why the hell should the Feds borrow a crap load of cash to make Canada stronger? Should we build you some new roads too? Perhaps we should come up and improve the ports in Canada too!
The lumber stuff is dumb, and the US is wrong on that one. We should be allowed to require that the US government buy American, however.
there’s plenty of work here for the next decade or three, by which time the world may settle down with a friendlier realtionship…
but the first thing we should put an absolute import ban on are American flags.
i’m just saying.
Because if you get all protectionist, and mess with free trade, you will (in the long run), be worse off.
The American economy does not exist in a vacuum, and like it or not, your own country will be better off if the economy of your trading partners does not go into the toilet
if joe six pack wants to order imported goods, fine…
but the government should spend our money where we want it to be spent.
there’s plenty to go around for everyone.
That is not protectionism, in the classic definition. Protectionism is when we PREVENT imports from coming to America.
For US Government spending that is being justified to help AMERICA, we should spend it on AMERICAN goods.
Walmart is welcome to stock aisle after aisle of “Made in China” products. Lennar can build houses made of Canadian lumber.
However, if we are going to justify billions of dolllars in long-term debt to help America, we need to spend it on and in America. If not - you are arguing that we should take the stimulus program and just spend the money on hookers and blow in Cabo San Lucas -after all, it is a global economy.
How about little lapel pins? Are they pretty critical too?
It does not matter how you want to label it. The real question IMHO, is whether or not it is a good idea.
Again, you don’t live in a bubble. If the American government spends money on Canadian goods, our economies are so intertwined already, that it is almost inevitable that this money will flow right back into the United States when these Canadian companies turn around and spend money on American goods. Trade flowing in an unobstructed (or unmanipulated if you prefer) manner is good for both of our economies.
For another thing, it does not make much sense for the American government to stop buying steel from, for example, Stelco in Hamilton Ontario. That’s because Stelco is now owned by US Steel.
I completely agree that Obama is not nearly protectionist enough. But what I am really furious about is that my state (New Jersey) buys vehicles from other states such as Michigan and Alabama. These are New Jersey tax dollars, and I don’t want them spent on non-NJ companies! Also, our tax dollars should only be spent on New Jersey computers and New Jersey steel. Ideally, this could be practiced by every county or city, so I get buy everything from my immediate community. This would force the creation of millions of jobs, so my neighbors and I could produce cars and laptops and everything that we currently buy from foreign places like China and Texas. If we did this we’d be out of the recession overnight.
This stimulus bill is equivalent to about 6% of the United States’ GDP. That’s pretty significant.
I disagree. The government should not waste the taxpayers’ money propping up inefficient local companies at the expense of close allies and trading partners like Canada, if Canadian companies can do a better job.
Canada and the US steel industries are highly integrated and the benefits are rather even. Our stimulus packages seem rather comparable as well on a per capita scale.
In 2000 we sold each other Three and a half billion dollars worth of steel.
However, any US restriction on Canadian imports will harm Canada unduly, because (from 2000 stats) the US bought 96% of Canada’s exports while Canada only represented 60% of US exports.
Yet 20% of of the Canadian steel market uses American steel.
Canada will have no choice but to come up with a similar trade restriction.
It would appear to me that the right thing to do is to exempt Canada from this trade restriction. I’ve heard that there’s a chance that that could be accomplished in the senate. However given all I’ve heard about Obama’s background community organizing around a shut down steel mill, I’m not so sure.
How about China? Should we ship the stimulus checks straight to Shanghai?
After all, it is a global economy.
Fine, you hate China and don’t want to buy their products, whatever. How does that have anything to do with whether you should buy Canadian products?
(bolding mine)
You really support paying up to 25% more for these projects (not just 25% of the cost of the iron and steel, but 25% of the whole project), so that the money goes directly to American companies instead of to your closest ally?
Personally, I’m not even convinced that there exist an “American economy” and “Canadian economy” as separate entities. Our border is so long that for many places in Canada, the closest major city is in the US, and vice versa. It’s also the most open border in the world (or at least, with the establishment of the European Union, one of the most open), and our peoples speak the same language and have very similar cultures, making migration of people across the border trivially easy. In what sense are our economies separate?
The only complaint I could see is if the government of Canada is not taking proportionate measures of its own to improve the economy. Is it?
Monday will see the passage of a budget with a rather gigantic stimulus endeavour. It will be the first deficit run by the Canadian government in twelve years.
I am making no distinction between ANY of the nations we trade with in this. I would happily work with Canada, but then why not Mexico? They are a critical part of our nation’s economic health as well. China is our manufacturing arm, and their pain is felt by us as well.
Now, you brought in a great point - the 25% project increase. Here is the thing, we are not deficit spending to rebuild our infrastructure. We are spending to help our economy and to get Americans back into jobs. It might be that spending 25% more is WORTH it - if that means that more of that money will stay in the US and create more American jobs.
I do NOT support trade barriers, but when you are talking about a stimulus program it is imporant that we ensure that the maximum stimulation is on our own people. If we find out that our stimulus dollars saved Canada but did little for the US - then the next time the bill comes forward it will be voted down.
That’s the thing though. Your scenario is impossible. There is no possible way that say, for instance, buying Canadian made steel would save Canada but do little for the US. We don’t just stuff the money you spend on our products into our igloos or blow it all on hookers and blow. We buy stuff. Mostly your stuff. Which helps your economy. See Chronos’ post.
absolutely! anything with fifty stars and thirteen stripes.